Living in Osaka - a congested city filled with people, buildings, cars, and bursting with activity 24/7 - it’s difficult to picture Japan as anything other than an artificial manmade beehive.
Where are the trees? The animals? Sure, there are beautiful cherry blossom trees in full bloom, harboring festive picnickers as I [...]
Foreigners in Japan
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. The same can be said about Japan. What attracts foreigners is its uniqueness. It isn’t hard to see westerners go to and participate in local festivals, drink vast amounts of sake and carry miniature shrines through the street. Dress up in [...]
Smith’s School of English Lessons
I had a pink level student today. I prepared a basic Item and a basic Routine as well. During pre-lesson preparations, I noticed that this was her first time the student comes in for lessons and her trial lesson teacher used part one of the Morning Routine. The trial lesson teacher [...]
Smith’s School of English Lesson Plan Narrative
Today’s first student was a middle-aged man who is red level. He has been coming to Smiths as a man to man student for a long time and enjoys a challenge in his lessons as well the opportunity to discuss and use his English freely.
ET B.9 - From Smith’s [...]
April 21, 2007
Smith’s School of English Kyobashi
It’s hotter today that it has been of late, which is pretty surprising and unfortunate for those of us who are wearing itchy, woolly socks. Many of the students coming in are in high spirits thanks to the wonderful weather.
ET: B18 – I’m sick of (A) because [...]
Marshal Holmes
Head Teacher
Smith’s School of English, Ogikubo
For sometime now at Smith’s School of English in Ogikubo, I have had the pleasure of teaching high level students. I currently have quite a few normal, powerful, and Man to Man students who are high level English speakers, and each one is unique and a pleasure to [...]
ET
A3.15 I’m broke
It was my fist time to meet the student today so before jumping right into the one point review I decided to establish trust by asking her what her job was. She answered “I’m …office worker”. OK I thought, a little bit of work will be required getting her to give me [...]
Idiom Lesson part 2
Number of students: 2
Kind of student: OL (Office Lady) & Retired business man
A powerful course student joined the second part of this lesson, due to this I checked his file beforehand on whether he had studied these idioms before. He had taken the lesson 3 months previously, so I [...]
A Narrative Structure of The Idiom Lesson
The Benefits
High student talking time. No prepping. Active and fun interaction. Common idiom sentence building. Limited board work. Student to student course lesson manipulation. Board game play
Preliminary Information
Level: Advanced (Green/Yellow)
Class focus: Materials/Resources – Board game
Aims: to raise further awareness of the listener’s active [...]
Vocabulary Lesson part 2
Number of students: 2
Kind of student: Housewife & Secretary
A powerful course student joined the second part of this lesson, due to this I checked her file beforehand on whether she had studied these vocabulary words. She had taken the lesson 2 months previously, so I thought it would make [...]
A Narrative Structure of The Vocabulary Lesson
The Benefits
High student talking time. No prepping. Active and fun interaction. Popular vocabulary word building. Simple format board work. Student to student course lesson manipulation. Story telling. Board game.
Preliminary Information
Level: Advanced (High red onwards)
Class focus: Materials/Resources – Board game
Aims: to [...]
Phrase Lesson part 2
Number of students: 2
Kind of student: Office lady & High school boy
Both students turned up for my lesson and had prepared their homework for the class. I looked over their questions in their note books. Here are the students’ questions they produced:
High school boy
Have you ever broken into [...]
I’ll post a series here about three Item lesson styles intended for High level students as narratives. These aren’t full lessons start to finish, just this one part of the Loop: the Item. You can use my experiences here as a model for how to fit them into your own Loop. I’ll [...]
Hi, this is Craig. I’m the owner/teacher at Smith’s School of English Ohtsu franchise. I’m also the author of the Curriculum Items used throughout the Smith’s system. I’ll use this soapbox to share my thoughts about teaching and living in Japan and also to talk about using the curriculum! Have a [...]
Hello, my name is Alessandro but most people call me Alex. I’m the owner of both Horie and Kamishinjo Smith’s School of English franchises. I also teach at both schools. This soap box has been set up for me to air my thoughts about teaching English and living in Japan. I [...]
April 7, 2007 (SJ)
Today is a miserable rainy day. The students seem to trickle in as stray raindrops after abandoning their umbrellas at the front door.
My next student is taking a man-to-man lesson. Before she even looks up from the depths of her coffee mug, I can tell that she is probably still [...]
Clarity
Franchisees gathered together at Smith’s Azamino for the March Seminar held in the Kantou Area. We at head office are extremely pleased to see that the system has grown to the point where repeat seminars held at different locations are a standard fixture in our system. The main topics for discussion were largely [...]
ET
A1.57 We’re behind schedule.
I always enjoy drawing out my ET in a natural conversational manner. It might be a bit non-standard, but for this particular One Point I start the lesson off with a bit of chat. I ask about the students’ days and one student tells me that it was another [...]
Humble Beginnings
“Build it and they will come” is what I remember thinking when I first opened my English school franchise. It feels like just yesterday when I said goodbye to being an employee and made my decision to open my own business. I was young and enthusiastic but really didn’t have much idea of what [...]
Having taught English back in the late 1970’s at Berlitz and in the early 1980’s in the evening to a large corporation’s employees destined to work for extended periods in the middle east and southeast Asia and having just returned this summer after a 20-year hiatus during which I worked in engineering and management in [...]
After nearly ten years of teaching English, eight of those spent in Japan and over five in the Smiths franchise system, I have reached the profound conclusion that running a small language school for adults is much like operating a successful hairdresser’s, and I’m not simply referring to handing out fliers on the street…
A Quick [...]
When I went to Japan, my original idea was to be there for one month. In that time I did and saw things that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. The thing that surprised me most though was that the amazing history and many traditional cultural sights around every corner were not the [...]
This past summer I decided it was time to go on a vacation. When I finally decided Japan was the perfect place to visit I knew I couldn’t go anywhere else. I was lucky enough to have an American friend, Gavin, who lives in Japan and it allowed me to have a stable place to [...]